Dr. Wil Burns is a Visiting Professor in the Environmental Policy and Culture Program at Northwestern University. He is also the Founding Co-Director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy at American University’s School of International Service (SIS) in Washington, DC, and a Professor of Practice in SIS. He has taught at a number of other universities, including John Hopkins University, where he served as the Director of the Energy Policy & Climate Program, the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and the University of California-Berkeley. He has taught in professional, graduate and undergraduate programs, as well as at law schools.
Prior to becoming an academic, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs for the State of Wisconsin and worked in the non-governmental sector for twenty years, including as Executive Director of the Pacific Center for International Studies, a think-tank that focused on implementation of international wildlife treaty regimes, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
He is also the former President of the Association for Environmental Studies & Sciences, and former Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law interest group of the American Society of International Law and Chair of the International Wildlife Law Interest group. He also served as a Senior Research Fellow for the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), and Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association.
He also served as founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, as well as Case Studies in the Environment. He has published over 85 articles and chapters in law, science, and policy journals and books, and has co-edited four books. He holds a Ph.D. in International Environmental Law from the University of Wales-Cardiff School of Law (now Cardiff School of Law and Politics).
His current areas of research focus are climate geoengineering and climate loss and damage. He serves as an advisor and consultant to a number of carbon dioxide removal start-up companies, as well as an advisor to carbon removal purchasers, including Frontier, and carbon removal verification companies, including Verra and Puro.earth. He has also served as an advisor to several international environmental treaty regimes.